Hans von Luck

Hans von Luck (15 July 1911-1 August 1997) was an Oberst of Nazi Germany who served with the 7th Panzer Division and 21st Panzer Division.

Biography
Hans von Luck was born on 15 July 1911 in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, German Empire. His father died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918 after World War I, and in 1929 Hans von Luck joined the Reichswehr. He served in a Silesian cavalry regiment that took part in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives, and he sered in the blitzkrieg in Poland, France, and the Soviet Union. In 1942, Captain von Luck led the 3rd Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion of the 21st Panzer Division, and in Normandy his kampfgruppe fought against the United States and United Kingdom. After defeating the British in Operation Goodwood during the Battle of Caen, Luck was promoted to Oberst and commander of the 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment. His kampfgruppe helped other German units in escaping the Falaise Gap, with 50,000 Germans being able to escape the encirclement thanks to Luck's unit. In April 1945 he surrendered to the Soviet Union after failing to break out of the Soviet Union's encirclement at the Battle of Halbe, and he was jailed in a gulag in Georgia for five years. Pressure from the Western Allies led to the release of Von Luck and several other Wehrmacht; he was involved in veterans' groups and befriended the historian Stephen E. Ambrose, who encouraged him to write Panzer Commander. He died in 1997.